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U.S. Physician Workforce Data Dashboard

U.S. Physician Workforce Data Dashboard 2026 Key Findings

The location of the physician’s office was used to determine whether an active physician is in the United States. In cases where the physician’s office location was missing, the state from the preferred mailing address was used. This substitution occurred for approximately 11.0% of cases among all active physicians in 2025.

Key Findings

These are the key findings from the 2026 release of the U.S. Physician Workforce Data Dashboard:

  • In 2025, the specialties with the largest numbers of active physicians were the primary care specialties of internal medicine, family medicine/general practice, and pediatrics (refer to Physician Specialties & Location).
  • In 2025, the United States had 1,044,078 active physicians of which 905,452 were direct patient care physicians, corresponding to 265 physicians per 100,000 population respectively. States in the Northeast had the highest numbers of direct patient care physicians per population (refer to Physician Density by Specialty & Location).
    • Among states and territories, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia had the highest number of direct patient care physicians per population. Mississippi, the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa had the lowest number of direct patient care physicians (refer to Physician Density by Specialty & Location).
    • Nationally, there were seven direct patient care general surgeons per 100,000 population. The District of Columbia had the highest number of direct patient care general surgeons per 100,000 population (13), followed by Wyoming (11), West Virginia, Vermont, Alaska, New Hampshire, Maine, and North Dakota (10 each). The Northern Mariana Islands and American Samoa had the lowest number (0), followed by Texas, Utah, and Nevada (five each) (refer to Physician Density by Specialty & Location).
  • In 2025, 25.6% of active physicians were international medical graduates (IMGs; refer to Physicians by Specialty). States and territories varied widely in the percentage of their physician workforce that graduated from an international medical school.
    • Puerto Rico, New Jersey, Florida, and New York had the highest percentages (46.4%, 37.0%, 36.9%, and 35.9%, respectively), while Idaho (7.4%) had the lowest percentage of IMGs (refer to Physicians by Specialty).
  • In 2025, more than one-third (39.2%) of the active physician workforce was female. Pediatrics (67.2%), obstetrics and gynecology (65.1%), and hospice and palliative medicine (63.3%) had the highest percentages of female physicians, while sports medicine (orthopedic surgery) and orthopedic surgery (8.1% and 7.0%, respectively) had the lowest percentages (refer to Physicians by Specialty).
    • The highest percentages of female physicians were in the District of Columbia (51.3%), the U.S. Virgin Islands (46.9%), and Massachusetts (45.8%). American Samoa had the lowest percentage of female physicians at 0%, followed by the Northern Mariana Islands (masked due to small cell sizes, less than 20%), Utah (28.1%), and Idaho (28.7%; refer to Physicians by Specialty & Location).
    • Note: The American Medical Association Physician Professional Data define gender as “male” or “female.” Therefore, these analyses are limited to these categories.
  • In 2025, 24.3% of active physicians were aged 65 or older. The percentages of this age group in individual specialties ranged from 77.5% in pulmonary disease to 0.3% in adult cardiothoracic anesthesiology (refer to Physicians by Specialty).
    • The Northern Mariana Islands (47.1%) and Puerto Rico (42.9%) had the highest percentages of physicians aged 65 and older. Utah had the lowest percentage of physicians older than 65 years (17.7%), followed by Idaho (19.8%; refer to Physicians by Specialty & Location).
  • In 2025, 16.5% of active physicians were under age 40. The percentages of this age group in individual specialties ranged from 39.7% in adult cardiothoracic anesthesiology to 0.5% in pulmonary disease (refer to Physicians by Specialty).
    • Michigan (21.0%) and the District of Columbia (20.8%) had the highest percentages of physicians under age 40. American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands had 0 physicians under age 40. The U.S. Virgin Islands had the lowest percentage (masked due to small cell sizes, less than 10%) followed by Puerto Rico (8.7%; refer to Physicians by Specialty & Location).
  • In 2025, 55.8% of active physicians identified as White, 20.2% as Asian, 6.8% as Hispanic, Latino, or of Spanish Origin (alone or in combination), 5.4% as Black or African American, 1.7% as Multiracial (non-Hispanic), 1.3% as Other, and less than 1% as American Indian or Alaska Native (0.3%) or Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander (0.1%). The percentage of physicians with an unknown race or ethnicity was 8.5% (refer to Physicians by Specialty).
  • In the late 1980s, pulmonary disease evolved into what is now known as pulmonary critical care. The decrease in physicians in this specialty is likely due to pulmonary critical care replacing pulmonary disease (refer to Physicians by Specialty).

Physician Retention

  • In 2025, 37.5% of U.S. physicians were practicing in the same state where they completed medical school (median, 38.3%), driven primarily by retention from public medical schools (retention, 45.6%; median, 43.1%). In 2025, 38.4% of U.S. physicians were practicing in the same state where they completed medical school ten years prior (median, 38.8%), also driven primarily by retention from public medical schools (10-year retention, 46.9%; 10-year median, 44.5%; refer to Physician Retention by Location).
    • Among states and territories with both public and private medical schools, the percentage of physicians retained from medical school at both time points was highest in California and Texas and lowest in Vermont and Connecticut (refer to Physician Retention by Location).
  • In 2025, 47.2% of U.S. physicians were practicing in the same state where they completed their most recent graduate training program (median, 44.2%). Similar percentages of physicians were practicing in the same state where they completed their graduate training ten years prior (10-year retention, 47.7%; 10-year median, 44.9%; refer to Physician Retention by Location).
    • Retention from graduate training was highest in California (70.9%), Puerto Rico (69.9%), and Alaska (63.5%) and lowest in Delaware (28.1%), Rhode Island (28.0%), and the District of Columbia (14.1%). Retention from completing graduate training ten years prior was highest in Puerto Rico (75.5%) and California (70.4%) and lowest in New Hampshire (26.7%) and the District of Columbia (16.0%; refer to Physician Retention by Location).
  • Nationally, more than two-thirds (retention, 67.6%; 10-year retention, 67.1%) of physicians who completed both medical school and graduate training programs in the same state remained in that state to practice (median, 68.2%; 10-year median, 68.8%; refer to Physician Retention by Location).
    • This percentage was highest in Hawaii (retention, 87.7%; 10-year retention, 87.9%) and California (retention, 81.8%; 10-year retention, 80.9%). The remaining states and territories had percentages of 48% or greater, except for New Hampshire (retention, 37.3%; 10-year retention, 35.2%) and the District of Columbia (retention, 17.1%; 10-year retention, 20.4%; refer to Physician Retention by Location).

Undergraduate Medical Education (UME)

  • In 2025, 47 states and two territories had at least one medical school. Alaska, Delaware, Wyoming, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands did not have a medical school.
  • During the 2025-2026 academic year, 41 students per 100,000 population were enrolled in U.S. medical schools. The states and territories with the highest student-to-population ratio were the District of Columbia (316), West Virginia (92), Vermont (81), Nebraska (78), and Missouri (78; refer to Medical School Enrollment by Location).
    • The rate of student enrollment per 100,000 population varied widely across the 41 states and one territory where a public medical school exists, from a low of 10 in California and Georgia to a high of 92 in West Virginia. Nationally, 20 students per 100,000 population were enrolled in public medical schools (refer to Medical School Enrollment by Location).
  • Between the 2015-2015 and 2025-2026 academic years, the total number of students enrolled in U.S. medical schools increased by 24.3% (median, 22.5%). Pennsylvania (-3.9%) was the only state or territory to experience a decrease in total enrollment during the ten-year period. Utah (335.0%), New Mexico (172.7%), and Arkansas (118.0%) had the biggest percentage increases in enrollment (refer to Medical School Enrollment by Location).
    • The total number of students enrolled in U.S. MD-granting medical schools grew by 16.5% in the ten-year period (median, 12.4%). Nevada (125.5%), New Jersey (57.9%), and Washington (54.5%) experienced the most growth in MD-granting medical school enrollment. Virginia (-0.4%) was the only state or territory to experience a decline in MD-granting medical school enrollment (refer to Medical School Enrollment by Location).
    • The total number of students enrolled in U.S. DO-granting medical schools increased by 48.8% in the ten-year period (median, 27.1%). Among the 27 states with DO-granting medical schools during the 10-year period, Texas (139.2%), Tennessee (128.3%), and Alabama (122.2%) had the largest percentage increases in DO-granting medical school enrollment. Pennsylvania (-21.3%), Michigan (-8.6%), and South Carolina (-4.2%) experienced the largest declines in DO-granting medical school enrollment (refer to Medical School Enrollment by Location).
  • For the 2025-2026 academic year, 59.6% of new students in U.S. MD-granting schools matriculated in their home state (median, 67.6%). Puerto Rico (96.8%) and West Virginia (94.4%) had the highest percentages of in-state MD matriculants. In contrast, New Hampshire (masked due to small cell sizes, less than 10%) and Maryland (24.6%) had the lowest percentage of in-state MD-school matriculants (refer to Medical School Enrollment by Location).

Residents and Fellows

  • In 2014, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), American Osteopathic Association, and the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine began the process to become a single graduate medical education accreditation system in the United States. The transition to a single GME accreditation system was completed in 2020.
  • In 2025, all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico had at least one ACGME-accredited training program. American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands did not have any ACGME-accredited training programs.
  • The number of residents and fellows in training programs per 100,000 in the United States was 50 (median, 39) in 2025. This varied widely across the United States, from a low of six in Alaska to a high of 258 in the District of Columbia (refer to Residents and Fellows by Location).
    • In 2025, the number of residents and fellows per 100,000 population in specialty care training programs was 31 (median, 25) and 18 in primary care training programs (median, 14). Among both primary care and specialty care training programs, the highest density of residents and fellows per population occurred in the Northeast and lowest density in the Western United States. (refer to Residents and Fellows by Location).
  • The total number of residents and fellows in U.S. training programs increased 34.7% between 2015 and 2025 (median, 31.7%), with the highest growth occurring among U.S. DOs (133.6%; median, 142.0%; refer to Residents and Fellows by Location).
    • Between 2015 and 2025, Hawaii (-9.5%) was the only state or territory to experience a decrease in the total percentage of residents and fellows, primarily driven by decreases in U.S. MDs (-11.6%) and U.S. DOs (-20.2%). During this 10-year period, the percentage of IMG residents in Hawaii increased by 14.1% (refer to Residents and Fellows by Location).
    • Nevada (159.0%), Florida (120.9%), and Idaho (112.4%) had the largest increases in the total percentage of residents and fellows, primarily driven by large growth in the percentage of U.S. DOs (each over 250%; refer to Residents and Fellows by Location).